Cassie119300
Member
Hello,
This story may be very triggering for some so please read with caution, this story though is a part of what's causing me to lose peace. My bunny Milo who passed away on October 24th 2021 at 6.5 years old had a lot going on. At five years old he has developed what is known as snuffles, it started with his eyes looking reddish in the corners especially his right eye and then eventually a white mucus on the right side nostril just one nostril.
He was given baytril for 2 weeks. He did not sneeze a lot and I cleared his nose as needed usually every other day. He did have quite a snore when he slept though.
The baytril didn't do much but did reduce the eye redness to some degree. I also noted to the vet at the time his ***** looked reddish and watery, just off to me.... I also had to give him butt baths a lot as he always had a problem with poopy butt it seemed no matter what I did or changed.
Penicillin G Procaine injections were given to him once a week for for 3 weeks for possible syphilis. Looking back I would have thought this would have been enough to clear his pasteurella but no. I noticed Milo was itching his ears a lot and flapping them around. I emailed the vet again explaining this and that he had some dry white flakes on his ears. She used a q tip to check his ear although I swear I remember her culturing under the microscope the discharge from his nose not his ear but whatever the case, the vet returned to the room two minutes later and said there was nothing. As for the ear flakes it didn't seem they wanted to be bothered with that.
Time goes on... I ask is there anything else we can do for the snuffles. Milo gets prescribed azithromycin twice. Again I want to say at most for two weeks. It still was not going away. Then came the antibiotic doxycycline. Still no improvement.
This is when the vet then basically told me that it now likely had become chronic and there is nothing that can completely rid rabbits of upper respiratory diseases or in his case pasteurella...which is weird for pasteurella never having been cultured, well I didn't know that at the time... She said he would most likely need to be treated every 3-4 months with antibiotics. That is not what happened though, I pretty much got ignored.
He developed a nystagmus of his eyes darting left to right in addition with his head swaying left to right rapidly, very fast until he would suddenly snap out of it. I understand some red eyed rabbits can do this, but this was pretty weird I thought, and the vet thought this was seizure activity??? He still continued to scratch at his ears. Now he did have some fleas but I had been using measures to help that, it can be difficult having two dogs and two cats in addition at the time. I was treating him with ovitrol as per a vets directions, unfortunately that very had retired long before all of this began. Leaving no exotic vet in my area. This other vet I was seeing regularly was a 40 minute drive.
I was even shockingly told by an assistant over the phone at this vets office most people opted to put their rabbits down due to it being " very distressing". I sought another opinion about 30 miles the opposite direction in the middle of winter, I do not drive unfortunately so my dad usually helped me with this on his days off, or my mother if the location wasn't too far, otherwise it was difficult with heavy traffic and unknown areas.
This other vet unfortunately had a pretty basic set up and prescribed baytril tablets which I had to crush up and liquify to give Milo orally. Thankfully Milo took medicines for me like a champ especially with applesauce on the syringe. She did a basic evaluation of his teeth and prescribed advantage for fleas as she was concerned he may be anemic, the ovitrol was not working like I thought... The advantage worked a bit better but still some fleas remained. I knew this place wasn't going to be much better.
I noticed he had developed what looked like facial paralysis... When he would eat his salad too his head would kind of rock side to side as well as he tried to eat the leafs. He was still eating as usual, he was also drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot too. The one side of his face seemed higher than the other. I emailed the usual vet about his face and the ear issue he had and asked about dental issues. I went in for a check up...she did a brief look at his teeth not even recommending checking his teeth better and wanted to start treatment with febendazole due to the " seizure activity".
Two rounds of this and more doxycycline I insisted on and nothing was getting better not worse, but just remaining the same. I was also instructed to groom him better whilst I was always taking care of his poopy butt, sometimes however he would arrive at the office this way but this vet didn't seem concerned with that?
We're now about a year and some months in later when June 2021 Milo developed pus in the right ear...again exactly where all other symptoms were occuring as well as some fur staining/fur loss and crusting of both eyes and some discharge in his other nostril now as well as some pus on his left ear but not as bad as his right ear.
The vet literally just kept insisting on e cuniculi and gave me tresaderm drops for his ear a steroid which I was hesitant to use but I was also just desperate to help him. She used an ear cleanser on his ear, looked at the pus...refused to culture it and that was that. Eventually she gave me the ear flush to use at home after saying " no" to me the first time when I asked if that's something I should use at home. It was virbac epiotic cleanser, and I'm even afraid she may have used a bottle that was just sitting out on her counter where it was probably used on many pets. This office was very clean and sanitized all the time, this concerned me though. I was also told to give him yogurt drops as a probiotic....no, I would not. She also liked giving rabbits plain Cheerios as treats?
I sought another vet after being charged an arm and a leg for literally nothing and getting no where. His right ear looked strictured, I used a pen light to assess it and clean it almost every other day as per instructions which I later read can just make the pus more virulent unfortunately. This other vet did a culture thankfully at least, looked in his ear with the right tool and said it looked very swollen, and full of pus. The culture he did and came back and said cocci bacteria. I was prescribed two weeks of tresaderm for the swelling much to my dismay, and Albon oral. He said at the next visit it was 50% cleared but the ear drum was not visible. The thing is his ear would always begin to clear up then it would just resurge with pus again. I was then given an ear cleanser for yeast called trizultra keto and it seemed to get some wax up out of his ears but not much else otherwise. My bunny seemed to be spending more time napping under my bed and randomly peed by my bed one day. I knew something was up bad. I thought I had just 5 more days to go until his next appointment... Then it happened. Milo began to lose balance using the side of my desk, walls and near by areas for support. He was wobbly and having trouble getting into his litter pan. I also couldn't tell if he had been drinking still or not and he did not want his salad. He was also beginning to go into GI stasis. It had been at least 4 weeks since the tresaderm. I wonder if the remodeling going on near by had stressed him out as well, Milo could not hear me anymore and had not been able to since late June. We are now in the beginning of October 2021. I could not get into this vet asap so I had to go back to the one I'd always seen.
Milo was given subcutaneous fluids, more dewormer for e cuniculi, doxycycline, metacam, and metoclopramide 3-4 times a day to stimulate his gut and prevent nausea as well as critical care. His head was tilted to the right, the original bad ear side. I also do think he may have had a slight bulge underneath this right ear that I could feel sometimes, it was hard for me to tell though.
His poops were very tiny and I was told his stomach was a bit doughy no blockages and he was dehydrated. He took the medicines for me, critical care...water though, was not very easy. It was falling out of the side of his mouth when he was trying to drink it, he could not drink water on his own but the critical care was easier for him to take.
The next day he lost all balance and began rolling, his right eye was also swollen and infected. We were back at the vet and he was given an ointment for his eye and in addition baytril just in case it was an ear infection when I'd been saying it was his ear all along. She just refused to ever acknowledge it for some strange reason, even though she could see the pus.even though she could never be bothered to do much as look in his ear with a light, do blood work, cts.... They had one of their assistants give him a shot of something to calm his dizzyness and I was quite pissed when I saw them roughly *** him with it and even saw some blood on his fur. It was just unbelievable everything and it all just felt so hopeless. Why did I have to be in a situation where it seemed no one knew what they were doing half the time or what was going on? Even deliberately? I felt so bad for him. They just told me to pretty much see how it goes over a few days and see if it's worth his suffering for, when I thought he'd have to be put down each time I went back there with him, I relived that torture about 6 times within this month.
The next appointment she told me she wanted to try acupuncture as she would " hate to see him go downhill" due to his paralysis. Well ... He could kick his little feet and if he was on his side he could groom his face with his front paws and even propel himself forward somewhat with his back legs but he was pretty much paralyzed. I agreed to try it and I wasnt too happy when he then rolled during the procedure with pins in him. The other vet doing it even said she would like to see him again some muscle before doing another session. I wasn't having it though, I knew I could do exercises for his feet at home and massages for his head tilt, I had to tell the vet repeatedly no. This one session alone was 300.00
She never cared to mention that he was losing muscle to me, maybe just a pound he had lost and commented yet again on how he was dehydrated ( according to the skin tent test) even though I was doing everything to get water in him with literally no guidance from this vet, just my own research. I would do it along with critical care, medicines, some baby food etc... I was doing my all but the water falling down was causing fur loss and some dermatitis to his chin and right front paw. I even mentioned he couldn't drink out of every different source I tried...not a water bottle, not a small nipple bottle, not a shallow dish and hardly with the syringe. She just responded sarcastically and snottily with yeah bunnies don't drink from straws. She rarely allowed you to ask questions she always dominated the conversation.
I had always given Milo echnichea supplements to keep his immunity in check and still was and even gave him a probiotic. He seemed to be lifting his body up for the water and trying to sit up on his own. His poop was sort of improving, he had passed these big prices of sticky poop with hair all in it followed by small tiny poops and kept having these weird big sticky poops in the morning, which I didn't understand. I saw no cecotrophs at all and I knew he couldn't be eating them. He was eating salad, just couldn't with water but he seemed to want to be able to he tried to bring his head close but just couldn't. He was eating hay on his own and some pellets and still critical care. He would put his face into my palm after my feedings and I always kept his favorite stuffed sheep animal near by. Let me also mentioned for a dehydrated bunny he was still peeing a lot. Bright yellow pee even. I changed out puppy pads frequently. His morning poops concerned me though. It seemed underneath them was somewhat of a liquid puddle. The only advice I was given was keep feeding more hay. I was so on full duty so much to the point where I did not sleep until about 3 am each night and my mother would help me with him in the morning or when I needed to shower, I shower her everything and she had cared for cats in the same ways before. I rarely ate and couldn't think about anything but saving his life.
Milo was very skinny feeling... How a rabbit goes from 4.80 pounds approximately right down to 3.03 oz is beyond me. Something was wrong and he was beginning to grow weaker again. Here's the thing though... And it doesn't make sense to this day. His rolling stopped, his eye began to clear up, and his nystagmus started to improve....but the rest of his body was moving even less...His snuffles had been the worst I'd ever seen them throughout the beginning of October and I was constantly clearing his nose putting hot steam in the air but at times...his mouth did seem to be going from slightly open to closed. This vet said there was nothing I could do for it which is a damn lie. Early on antibiotics could have been nebulized, I could do neb treatments, anything! She could have done x rays...no offer ever made and I had to find this all out on my own.
The last visit October 18th.. 2021, Milo was weak, but still eating some hay for me some pellets and still salad, taking meds as usual and critical care. My advice that day was " either he gains weight or... And putting him under for an ear flushing" I looked at him and did not see how he would even make it. I demanded a culture of his ear. She then told me most likely whatever came back would need to be treated orally and topically and kept saying it would be less risky to do an ear flushing than give him antibiotics.
His snuffles seemed to calm down at least he wasn't sneezing as much anymore and the snot was not non stop it was now back to what it was and we were now just in this standstill. I weighed Milo at home at he was 3.01 oz. His mental alertness became dull the last two days of his life on a weekend of course. He was not responsive to my touch as much, was not moving anything really except for occasionally flicking his ear when I cleaned it.... He still took the critical care for me and he still wanted lots of it but it was getting more difficult to give him water..the last night especially he didn't seem to want to swallow it really and I had worried he aspirated. His breathing was slow and sucked in looking and it looked like a cough after when I feared he aspirated but he did not make any sound. His ears became cold and he developed a very watery mushy type of stool his last night that was coming out non stop, he had also not peed since 6 pm, It was hopeless and I knew it and all I knew how to do was just hope and keep him comfortable. His ears were cold and when I wiped him he was shaking and his genital area looked a little red again. I knew nothing about expressing bladders at the time..
I kept him warm with a water bottle and put a light blanket on him after giving him his metoclopramide for his gut at this point just once a day his baytril and metacam just before bed at 3 am...I pet his fur. Any hay I tried this night and the last few he kinda chewed held in his mouth and ate it or let it drop out the same with his spring mix....but not the critical care. A few nights before this when I was cleaning his eye he made this sad sounding moan like noise for a few seconds and he sighed here and there. I will never be able to get it out of my head though.
I regret not staying near him just a little longer and not being at his side as not even 5 hours later my mom woke me up to tell me he was gone. I will always regret that. More than that though I feel absolutely rotten and terrible I never realized somehow humidity got to his hay satchel and there was some white mold on the bottom of the bag... I didn't know until it was too late. So as to what actually truly happened I don't know. His lips and teeth were slightly parted but he was still warm, his lips were slightly blue and when I moved him to make sure he was gone...normal yellow pee leaked out. So I don't understand that as well with his pee how none came out nearly half the night yet it did when he passed. There was also that watery poop as well. My poor little guy. I cleaned him off and only mad sure 50 times he was really gone, I was in utter shock and heartbroken. He was to be cremated the next day. I finally got the culture results the day he passed.... It was pseudomonas Areugenosa found in his ears...not cocci as the other vet said. The only antibiotics that would have worked would have been amikicin or gentamicin. The vet waited too long and knew all along what she should have done but she never did it. What a terrible awful senseless death she caused him. I was more than angry, I was shattered.
She had the fall to blame it on his snuffles and e cuniculi still and said it often claims the lives of rabbits then lied and said he had both upper and lower respiratory diseases. When shed only ever told me it was upper in the past. She said all treatments he had been given in the past provided reasonable responses but that he didn't respond over the last episode. She then also said I was never receptive to ending his decline to make it even worse. And that it was my responsibility to ask her to refer him so he could have had better care when she never told me to begin with she did not do sensitivity cultures there they had to be sent out, x rays, blood work etc...and yet they can spay rabbits there? Flush their ears? She later went in when I asked for his records and changed it so it would look like she found a rare bacteria in his ear an entire year prior.
I don't know what truly happened to him, if it was multiple things even, I can only assume..encephalitis took hold or sepsis and sadly his ear infection went past the bone in his ear, the bulla, and spread to his brain. It is so awful though...how hard it was to get him the care and relief he so desperately needed. Milo passed on just before my birthday as well, it was awful.
I've never ever in my life had to deal with such a terrible human being. So yeah that's Milo's story and it's a hard one to swallow. He was the sweetest thing I could have ever asked for, him and I went through a lot together. <3 If anyone has any thoughts into what may have happened it is much appreciated.
This story may be very triggering for some so please read with caution, this story though is a part of what's causing me to lose peace. My bunny Milo who passed away on October 24th 2021 at 6.5 years old had a lot going on. At five years old he has developed what is known as snuffles, it started with his eyes looking reddish in the corners especially his right eye and then eventually a white mucus on the right side nostril just one nostril.
He was given baytril for 2 weeks. He did not sneeze a lot and I cleared his nose as needed usually every other day. He did have quite a snore when he slept though.
The baytril didn't do much but did reduce the eye redness to some degree. I also noted to the vet at the time his ***** looked reddish and watery, just off to me.... I also had to give him butt baths a lot as he always had a problem with poopy butt it seemed no matter what I did or changed.
Penicillin G Procaine injections were given to him once a week for for 3 weeks for possible syphilis. Looking back I would have thought this would have been enough to clear his pasteurella but no. I noticed Milo was itching his ears a lot and flapping them around. I emailed the vet again explaining this and that he had some dry white flakes on his ears. She used a q tip to check his ear although I swear I remember her culturing under the microscope the discharge from his nose not his ear but whatever the case, the vet returned to the room two minutes later and said there was nothing. As for the ear flakes it didn't seem they wanted to be bothered with that.
Time goes on... I ask is there anything else we can do for the snuffles. Milo gets prescribed azithromycin twice. Again I want to say at most for two weeks. It still was not going away. Then came the antibiotic doxycycline. Still no improvement.
This is when the vet then basically told me that it now likely had become chronic and there is nothing that can completely rid rabbits of upper respiratory diseases or in his case pasteurella...which is weird for pasteurella never having been cultured, well I didn't know that at the time... She said he would most likely need to be treated every 3-4 months with antibiotics. That is not what happened though, I pretty much got ignored.
He developed a nystagmus of his eyes darting left to right in addition with his head swaying left to right rapidly, very fast until he would suddenly snap out of it. I understand some red eyed rabbits can do this, but this was pretty weird I thought, and the vet thought this was seizure activity??? He still continued to scratch at his ears. Now he did have some fleas but I had been using measures to help that, it can be difficult having two dogs and two cats in addition at the time. I was treating him with ovitrol as per a vets directions, unfortunately that very had retired long before all of this began. Leaving no exotic vet in my area. This other vet I was seeing regularly was a 40 minute drive.
I was even shockingly told by an assistant over the phone at this vets office most people opted to put their rabbits down due to it being " very distressing". I sought another opinion about 30 miles the opposite direction in the middle of winter, I do not drive unfortunately so my dad usually helped me with this on his days off, or my mother if the location wasn't too far, otherwise it was difficult with heavy traffic and unknown areas.
This other vet unfortunately had a pretty basic set up and prescribed baytril tablets which I had to crush up and liquify to give Milo orally. Thankfully Milo took medicines for me like a champ especially with applesauce on the syringe. She did a basic evaluation of his teeth and prescribed advantage for fleas as she was concerned he may be anemic, the ovitrol was not working like I thought... The advantage worked a bit better but still some fleas remained. I knew this place wasn't going to be much better.
I noticed he had developed what looked like facial paralysis... When he would eat his salad too his head would kind of rock side to side as well as he tried to eat the leafs. He was still eating as usual, he was also drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot too. The one side of his face seemed higher than the other. I emailed the usual vet about his face and the ear issue he had and asked about dental issues. I went in for a check up...she did a brief look at his teeth not even recommending checking his teeth better and wanted to start treatment with febendazole due to the " seizure activity".
Two rounds of this and more doxycycline I insisted on and nothing was getting better not worse, but just remaining the same. I was also instructed to groom him better whilst I was always taking care of his poopy butt, sometimes however he would arrive at the office this way but this vet didn't seem concerned with that?
We're now about a year and some months in later when June 2021 Milo developed pus in the right ear...again exactly where all other symptoms were occuring as well as some fur staining/fur loss and crusting of both eyes and some discharge in his other nostril now as well as some pus on his left ear but not as bad as his right ear.
The vet literally just kept insisting on e cuniculi and gave me tresaderm drops for his ear a steroid which I was hesitant to use but I was also just desperate to help him. She used an ear cleanser on his ear, looked at the pus...refused to culture it and that was that. Eventually she gave me the ear flush to use at home after saying " no" to me the first time when I asked if that's something I should use at home. It was virbac epiotic cleanser, and I'm even afraid she may have used a bottle that was just sitting out on her counter where it was probably used on many pets. This office was very clean and sanitized all the time, this concerned me though. I was also told to give him yogurt drops as a probiotic....no, I would not. She also liked giving rabbits plain Cheerios as treats?
I sought another vet after being charged an arm and a leg for literally nothing and getting no where. His right ear looked strictured, I used a pen light to assess it and clean it almost every other day as per instructions which I later read can just make the pus more virulent unfortunately. This other vet did a culture thankfully at least, looked in his ear with the right tool and said it looked very swollen, and full of pus. The culture he did and came back and said cocci bacteria. I was prescribed two weeks of tresaderm for the swelling much to my dismay, and Albon oral. He said at the next visit it was 50% cleared but the ear drum was not visible. The thing is his ear would always begin to clear up then it would just resurge with pus again. I was then given an ear cleanser for yeast called trizultra keto and it seemed to get some wax up out of his ears but not much else otherwise. My bunny seemed to be spending more time napping under my bed and randomly peed by my bed one day. I knew something was up bad. I thought I had just 5 more days to go until his next appointment... Then it happened. Milo began to lose balance using the side of my desk, walls and near by areas for support. He was wobbly and having trouble getting into his litter pan. I also couldn't tell if he had been drinking still or not and he did not want his salad. He was also beginning to go into GI stasis. It had been at least 4 weeks since the tresaderm. I wonder if the remodeling going on near by had stressed him out as well, Milo could not hear me anymore and had not been able to since late June. We are now in the beginning of October 2021. I could not get into this vet asap so I had to go back to the one I'd always seen.
Milo was given subcutaneous fluids, more dewormer for e cuniculi, doxycycline, metacam, and metoclopramide 3-4 times a day to stimulate his gut and prevent nausea as well as critical care. His head was tilted to the right, the original bad ear side. I also do think he may have had a slight bulge underneath this right ear that I could feel sometimes, it was hard for me to tell though.
His poops were very tiny and I was told his stomach was a bit doughy no blockages and he was dehydrated. He took the medicines for me, critical care...water though, was not very easy. It was falling out of the side of his mouth when he was trying to drink it, he could not drink water on his own but the critical care was easier for him to take.
The next day he lost all balance and began rolling, his right eye was also swollen and infected. We were back at the vet and he was given an ointment for his eye and in addition baytril just in case it was an ear infection when I'd been saying it was his ear all along. She just refused to ever acknowledge it for some strange reason, even though she could see the pus.even though she could never be bothered to do much as look in his ear with a light, do blood work, cts.... They had one of their assistants give him a shot of something to calm his dizzyness and I was quite pissed when I saw them roughly *** him with it and even saw some blood on his fur. It was just unbelievable everything and it all just felt so hopeless. Why did I have to be in a situation where it seemed no one knew what they were doing half the time or what was going on? Even deliberately? I felt so bad for him. They just told me to pretty much see how it goes over a few days and see if it's worth his suffering for, when I thought he'd have to be put down each time I went back there with him, I relived that torture about 6 times within this month.
The next appointment she told me she wanted to try acupuncture as she would " hate to see him go downhill" due to his paralysis. Well ... He could kick his little feet and if he was on his side he could groom his face with his front paws and even propel himself forward somewhat with his back legs but he was pretty much paralyzed. I agreed to try it and I wasnt too happy when he then rolled during the procedure with pins in him. The other vet doing it even said she would like to see him again some muscle before doing another session. I wasn't having it though, I knew I could do exercises for his feet at home and massages for his head tilt, I had to tell the vet repeatedly no. This one session alone was 300.00
She never cared to mention that he was losing muscle to me, maybe just a pound he had lost and commented yet again on how he was dehydrated ( according to the skin tent test) even though I was doing everything to get water in him with literally no guidance from this vet, just my own research. I would do it along with critical care, medicines, some baby food etc... I was doing my all but the water falling down was causing fur loss and some dermatitis to his chin and right front paw. I even mentioned he couldn't drink out of every different source I tried...not a water bottle, not a small nipple bottle, not a shallow dish and hardly with the syringe. She just responded sarcastically and snottily with yeah bunnies don't drink from straws. She rarely allowed you to ask questions she always dominated the conversation.
I had always given Milo echnichea supplements to keep his immunity in check and still was and even gave him a probiotic. He seemed to be lifting his body up for the water and trying to sit up on his own. His poop was sort of improving, he had passed these big prices of sticky poop with hair all in it followed by small tiny poops and kept having these weird big sticky poops in the morning, which I didn't understand. I saw no cecotrophs at all and I knew he couldn't be eating them. He was eating salad, just couldn't with water but he seemed to want to be able to he tried to bring his head close but just couldn't. He was eating hay on his own and some pellets and still critical care. He would put his face into my palm after my feedings and I always kept his favorite stuffed sheep animal near by. Let me also mentioned for a dehydrated bunny he was still peeing a lot. Bright yellow pee even. I changed out puppy pads frequently. His morning poops concerned me though. It seemed underneath them was somewhat of a liquid puddle. The only advice I was given was keep feeding more hay. I was so on full duty so much to the point where I did not sleep until about 3 am each night and my mother would help me with him in the morning or when I needed to shower, I shower her everything and she had cared for cats in the same ways before. I rarely ate and couldn't think about anything but saving his life.
Milo was very skinny feeling... How a rabbit goes from 4.80 pounds approximately right down to 3.03 oz is beyond me. Something was wrong and he was beginning to grow weaker again. Here's the thing though... And it doesn't make sense to this day. His rolling stopped, his eye began to clear up, and his nystagmus started to improve....but the rest of his body was moving even less...His snuffles had been the worst I'd ever seen them throughout the beginning of October and I was constantly clearing his nose putting hot steam in the air but at times...his mouth did seem to be going from slightly open to closed. This vet said there was nothing I could do for it which is a damn lie. Early on antibiotics could have been nebulized, I could do neb treatments, anything! She could have done x rays...no offer ever made and I had to find this all out on my own.
The last visit October 18th.. 2021, Milo was weak, but still eating some hay for me some pellets and still salad, taking meds as usual and critical care. My advice that day was " either he gains weight or... And putting him under for an ear flushing" I looked at him and did not see how he would even make it. I demanded a culture of his ear. She then told me most likely whatever came back would need to be treated orally and topically and kept saying it would be less risky to do an ear flushing than give him antibiotics.
His snuffles seemed to calm down at least he wasn't sneezing as much anymore and the snot was not non stop it was now back to what it was and we were now just in this standstill. I weighed Milo at home at he was 3.01 oz. His mental alertness became dull the last two days of his life on a weekend of course. He was not responsive to my touch as much, was not moving anything really except for occasionally flicking his ear when I cleaned it.... He still took the critical care for me and he still wanted lots of it but it was getting more difficult to give him water..the last night especially he didn't seem to want to swallow it really and I had worried he aspirated. His breathing was slow and sucked in looking and it looked like a cough after when I feared he aspirated but he did not make any sound. His ears became cold and he developed a very watery mushy type of stool his last night that was coming out non stop, he had also not peed since 6 pm, It was hopeless and I knew it and all I knew how to do was just hope and keep him comfortable. His ears were cold and when I wiped him he was shaking and his genital area looked a little red again. I knew nothing about expressing bladders at the time..
I kept him warm with a water bottle and put a light blanket on him after giving him his metoclopramide for his gut at this point just once a day his baytril and metacam just before bed at 3 am...I pet his fur. Any hay I tried this night and the last few he kinda chewed held in his mouth and ate it or let it drop out the same with his spring mix....but not the critical care. A few nights before this when I was cleaning his eye he made this sad sounding moan like noise for a few seconds and he sighed here and there. I will never be able to get it out of my head though.
I regret not staying near him just a little longer and not being at his side as not even 5 hours later my mom woke me up to tell me he was gone. I will always regret that. More than that though I feel absolutely rotten and terrible I never realized somehow humidity got to his hay satchel and there was some white mold on the bottom of the bag... I didn't know until it was too late. So as to what actually truly happened I don't know. His lips and teeth were slightly parted but he was still warm, his lips were slightly blue and when I moved him to make sure he was gone...normal yellow pee leaked out. So I don't understand that as well with his pee how none came out nearly half the night yet it did when he passed. There was also that watery poop as well. My poor little guy. I cleaned him off and only mad sure 50 times he was really gone, I was in utter shock and heartbroken. He was to be cremated the next day. I finally got the culture results the day he passed.... It was pseudomonas Areugenosa found in his ears...not cocci as the other vet said. The only antibiotics that would have worked would have been amikicin or gentamicin. The vet waited too long and knew all along what she should have done but she never did it. What a terrible awful senseless death she caused him. I was more than angry, I was shattered.
She had the fall to blame it on his snuffles and e cuniculi still and said it often claims the lives of rabbits then lied and said he had both upper and lower respiratory diseases. When shed only ever told me it was upper in the past. She said all treatments he had been given in the past provided reasonable responses but that he didn't respond over the last episode. She then also said I was never receptive to ending his decline to make it even worse. And that it was my responsibility to ask her to refer him so he could have had better care when she never told me to begin with she did not do sensitivity cultures there they had to be sent out, x rays, blood work etc...and yet they can spay rabbits there? Flush their ears? She later went in when I asked for his records and changed it so it would look like she found a rare bacteria in his ear an entire year prior.
I don't know what truly happened to him, if it was multiple things even, I can only assume..encephalitis took hold or sepsis and sadly his ear infection went past the bone in his ear, the bulla, and spread to his brain. It is so awful though...how hard it was to get him the care and relief he so desperately needed. Milo passed on just before my birthday as well, it was awful.
I've never ever in my life had to deal with such a terrible human being. So yeah that's Milo's story and it's a hard one to swallow. He was the sweetest thing I could have ever asked for, him and I went through a lot together. <3 If anyone has any thoughts into what may have happened it is much appreciated.
